Sunday, October 19, 2014

I wanted to let everyone know I’ve got 3 new workshops added
for 2015 that I’ll be teaching.

Two are back-to-back still life painting and portrait
painting workshops in my hometown of Fort Myers, Florida during the month of
March, both 10 days each so we can really get in lots of practice and cover lots
of material. It's some of the best
weather here in Southwest Florida-sunny and warm, but not too hot!

If you can join me for one, great! If you can get away long enough to come to
both, spending the whole month, even better!
It's a relaxed environment but we still get serious about drawing,
painting and oh yes...color!

Later in the summer, during August, I will be teaching a 5
day still life painting workshop in Austin, Texas. Even though it is only half
the length of my other workshops, rest assured that I'm going to pack in as
much information as I can! The perfect
opportunity for those who can't get away for my longer workshops.

If you want to learn more about any of these workshops
please visit the teaching section of my website by clicking on the image below:

If you can participate in one (or more) of the workshops I
look forward to working with you! If you're not able to make one of these this
time around hopefully there will be one in the future that will work better for
you.

Very often color is a mysterious area
for many artists, leaving them questioning not only the colors they observe but
also how to consistently mix up those colors! I know early on I had these
same concerns and it took me many years to gain a color framework that took
these mysteries away.

During each of my workshops I offer a
lecture/discussion centered on color – establishing a common framework for all
the participants to make use of during the remainder of the workshop.

For my upcoming 6 day still life workshop
at the Grand Central Academy of Art I will be giving this lecture/discussion on the first evening of the
workshop. And, for the first time ever, this session will be open to individuals beyond the workshop’s participants! Through a combination of
images, props and often enthusiastic hand gestures I will be sharing
information on:

-Color terminology.

-Organizing colors in a color-space
model.

-Understanding fundamentals of how
light works and affects our perceptions of an object’s local color and its
shading.

-Principles behind color mixing.

-How I go about designing a palette
for a painting or a particular subject.

This approximately three-hour session
will be packed with as much information as I can squeeze in — with time
available for questions from the group.

If you can attend, I can’t wait to share with you the
most critical ideas related to color that help me in each of my own paintings
so that hopefully you can feel more confident in your own color decisions!

Monday, May 19, 2014

When I was an art student studying in New York City I dreaded
having to purchase cadmium colors — as the proverbial starving artist I cringed
at the price tag for them. At that time
any money was too much money. But at
some point I decided they were necessary and justified buying a cadmium red and
a cadmium yellow light. I made do with just those two pigments for a number of
years and they gave me that extra punch of chroma or intensity whenever I
needed it. After awhile I found them a necessity for many projects. At some point I ended up also adding cadmium
orange to the mix. But still every time I went to repurchase them I found myself
cringing at the price tag. However, by this point we had become old friends and
despite the price I was so accustomed to their hue, value and chroma attributes
that I automatically added them to my cart without much reservation whenever I
needed a new tube.

A couple of months ago I started doing some tinkering with the
colors on my palette and decided that I might look into some alternatives for
my cadmium paints. And after trying a handful of different colors I finally
settled on replacements for cadmium red and cadmium yellow light. I thought I’d share those results in case
there are others out there who also wanted to begin phasing out their cadmiums.

For cadmium red (PR108) I’ve replaced it with Scarlet Lake
(PR255), also known as coral red or sometimes Pyrrole Scarlet. From the reading I’ve encountered it appears
to be quite lightfast receiving an “ASTM I rating.” I like that although its hue is very similar
to cadmium red light (which makes it feel familiar to me) its chroma is actually
a bit higher and continues to hold up well with the addition of white paint —
at least as well as the cadmium red I’ve been using.

For cadmium yellow pale/light (PY35) I have replaced it with
Winsor yellow (PY74), also known as Hansa yellow, Arylide Yellow or Azo yellow.
This one also receives an “ASTM I” rating which I’m pleased about. And although
its hue appears to display slightly less of an orange trace, when compared to
cadmium yellow light, it is still close enough in hue that it, again, feels
familiar to me. It also has a slightly
higher chroma than cadmium yellow light, giving me just a touch more color-space
range.

Now if the characteristics above were not enough to get me to
make the switch, the price for them added that extra incentive I needed. Both of these generally run under half the
cost of their cadmium counterparts, and for the remnants of that starving
artist I once knew so well, this makes me very happy!

Despite trying a few alternatives I’ve still yet to find a good
replacement for cadmium orange — so I suppose it will still linger on my
palette until I do so. If anybody has found a good replacement for it I would
love to hear your suggestions.

Did you enjoy this post?

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

The images in the post are works by the artist Harold Speed (1872 -1957). I've referenced him before in my post titled The Optical and Conceptual: Components of Perception. You can read that post by clicking "here."

Study for figure of Boreas by Harold Speed

Much of the time while I am painting, brushstrokes are
constantly cutting across one another. Yesterday while I was painting I
recalled a statement by Harold Speed from his book Oil Painting Techniques and Materials. In the passage I was recalling he was
describing “painting such details as the under eyelid…” And made the point that
“Generally speaking, remember that you can only attend to one edge of the touch
that you are making. If you try and
paint a touch that needs variety on both its edges, and you try and get the
variety on both sides at the same time, you will fail to get either right. ” In
essence when we place a stroke of paint we can only focus on the exactness
(drawing and placement) of one of its edges at a time. To get the other edge to
be exactly as we wish we can then recut into it with the next stroke of paint. This is such a simple and obvious thought and
yet it can be tremendously helpful at times.

Frank Pomeroy, 1898 by Harold Speed

Within the classically-based art circles I’ve been most
associated with, Harold Speed’s two books, The Practice and Science of Drawing and Oil Painting Techniques and Materials, are well-known and widely read. If
you are a representational artist and you’re not familiar with his books I
would highly recommend them. The Practice and Science of Drawing can be
read online for free here:

Even though I don’t necessarily paint in the exact manner
prescribed by Harold Speed, I find his books are full of insightful material—every time
I go back to them I seem to pick out some new bit of information. If you’ve got
any useful insights or tips you’ve gained from reading either one of his books
I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!